Dodger Football Back in Play

A few weeks ago, I wrote that City Councilman Mike Hernandez would best serve himself and his constituents by resigning from office. It was a personal plea to a fundamentally decent man with deep personal problems.

But it was inevitable that public policy would eventually intrude on this painful and difficult case. It soon may, and it could effect not just Hernandez’s constituents, but all Los Angeles area taxpayers.

Until recently, Hernandez had provided important and, to his credit, responsive leadership on the still-evolving issue of whether to build the city a new football stadium, and where. Now that Hernandez’s arrest and entry into drug rehabilitation have rendered him politically impotent, the stadium issue changes dramatically. And not for the better--at least to those taxpayers who favor the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the site for a new National Football League franchise.

You remember the NFL. That seemingly all-powerful sports conglomerate that pulled two teams out of Greater Los Angeles three years ago, and then arrogantly decreed that pro football would never again grace our city until a suitable (read big, new and expensive) football facility was built.

It is easy to forget, with baseball season having come to an end and basketball season just beginning, but there was a time when pro football was big with Los Angeles sports fans. That changed when the Rams and Raiders suddenly left town. Yet it continues to mystify the NFL poohbahs that nobody here seems to care very much.

As I’ve written before, Angelenos have too much else to do by way of sports and other entertainment to care a whole lot when one particular act leaves town. We know that the NFL needs us more than we need them.

Of course, there are businessmen who want to bring a new NFL team to town. A handful of factions are jockeying for advantage, in fact, and every one of them has a new or refurbished football stadium as part of the deal. And all have been re-energized by the successful conclusion of negotiations to build a new sports arena downtown for the Lakers and the Kings.

The long political controversy that swirled around the arena project is over, and everyone is predicting that the $300 million facility will be ready by 1999. Even former critics say the city got a good deal on the arena by hanging tough in negotiations and limiting the expenditure of public money on the project.

Everyone assumes that the city can now negotiate a similarly advantageous deal with whomever gets an NFL franchise here. But I’m not so sure.

Depending on who you talk to, L.A.’s new football field will be in Exposition Park, where the 74-year-old Memorial Coliseum will be remodeled. Or it will be in a completely new stadium built near Hollywood Park, in Inglewood. Or it will be downtown, either adjacent to the new sports arena or next to Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park.

The Coliseum is the least expensive option and also the facility that could most quickly be readied. But Mike Hernandez’s problems have undermined whatever chance the Coliseum may have had.

Hernandez’s First District includes Dodger Stadium, which has always been the NFL’s favored location for a new stadium. The league was even preparing to offer a franchise to Dodger owner Peter O’Malley until he met fierce opposition from residents of the Echo Park neighborhood near his baseball park. Hernandez was the most visible and powerful spokesman for that opposition.

O’Malley was so discouraged that he put the Dodgers and their 300-acre hilltop home up for sale. The highest bidder, at an estimated $350 million, was Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp., 20th Century Fox and other major media and entertainment properties.

Now, with Hernandez out of the picture, O’Malley’s interest in football has been revived, and soon he may have a powerful ally--Rupert Murdoch.

Any day now, Major League Baseball is expected to approve the Dodgers’ sale, which means O’Malley will have the cash to pursue an NFL franchise. And Murdoch will have a prime piece of property available for pro football. (His Fox Network carries NFL games and badly wants a new team in the nation’s second-largest TV market.)

Not surprisingly, the first people to understand what might happen were residents Echo Park. Last week the activist group Neighbors of Dodger Stadium sent a letter to the NFL warning that “We will use all our resources to fight the NFL moving onto Dodger property and into Elysian Park.”

Brave words. But it might be sobering for folks in Echo Park to ponder the sad experience some property owners on the city’s Westside had with Murdoch. Five years ago, he ran into strong neighborhood opposition after announcing plans to expand Fox’s main facility near Cheviot Hills. Murdoch was delayed for awhile, but ultimately pushed his expansion plans through the City Council, and they are proceeding apace.

If Murdoch could steamroll prosperous and well-connected Westsiders, what chance do homeowners and renters in Echo Park have? Not much--at least not without an effective representative in City Hall.